


Status Infirmos - Culpa

by insomniacitizen (Callophilia)



Series: Status Verse [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Ardyn is a little shit, Reader Whump, as always, noctis feels the weight of the world always, reader - Freeform, reader gets ass handed to them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 05:25:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20353108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callophilia/pseuds/insomniacitizen
Summary: You are not from Eos, and you react to status ailments more severely and longer than any Eos native. This is why you have a Ribbon. This is why you end up in a lot of trouble.Chocobros/Reader, hurt (emphasis on hurt) and comfort





	Status Infirmos - Culpa

“Enemies above us!” Prompto calls out as the ship steers overhead to hang low above your group. You bring up your sword ready for whatever comes out of the opening hull.

It’s thrown out expertly, and before any of you have the chance to shout ‘grenade’ it explodes in a cloud of thick black smog.

“What the hell,” you choke out, never having seen anything like this in the game. It lines your throat and makes you cough more and more, and through the hanging smoke you can hear the others coughing and spluttering too. “What is this stuff?”

Nobody answers and their coughing stops all at once. Your own throat feels lined with the stuff, it scratches and creates an uncomfortable layer, along with a foul taste in your mouth.

“Guys? You guys ok?” The smoke that hung in the air shifts in the wind, dispersing after a moment and you can see the guys stood statue still. “Guys?” Your whisper is loud in the quiet, the distant hum of the hanging airship unheard above your own nerves and tense breathing.

Prompto raises his gun first, firing at you multiple times. If you hadn’t been wound tighter than a spring you wouldn’t have dodged quick enough to miss most of them, though one hit you in your left shoulder and you bite back a curse but push past the pain. 

“Prom?!” There’s no time to look at him with absolute disbelief because you glance at the other three and find they’re all making a predatory bee-line towards you. Noct throws his sword straight at you, and you bring your own up to block his attack as he warps.

He presses down with his blade, eyes staring at you but with an expression of complete disassociation: He’s blank, like he’s not really there.

“Noct, wake the fuck up!” You grind out as you push him away with urgency, turning and side stepping as Ignis comes at you with blades that are too fast to see. His torrent of attacks is constant and you know you need to get away. Gladio is making his way towards you and as you glance at him one of Ignis’ blade slices across your cheek, the delayed sting as the air hits the wound makes you wince. 

You thank your lucky stars you have your ribbon, otherwise you’d have been poisoned. 

Moving as far as you can from your friends you rack your brain.

The ribbon, that’s what saved you from the effects of the gas. So it’s a status ailment… Which means it will pass, right?

Your little break is over as Prompto unleashes another flurry of bullets and Gladio comes closer as he swings his sword around with such force he would have cut you in half if you hadn’t stumbled away at the last moment.

Ignis is on you again, steering you towards Gladio with measured movements and precise slashes that make you flinch in the right directions: He’s impossible to block with your sword so you’re constantly being pushed back.

“Ignis come on!” Your effort gives him an opening and he nicks you again, this time opening a steadier flow of blood. You cry out and stumble, enough for Gladio to stun you with an assault with his shield.

“Snap out of it!” You screech, and you’re aware of how absolutely terrified you are. You always knew the guys were stronger than you, and they barely pushed themselves when training you, holding back so as not to hurt you. 

It was even worse that they still weren’t trying, you were weak and they knew it, and they were toying with you like a cat with a mouse. They were holding back now out of some twisted enjoyment.

They all decide in tandem to attack again, this time all at once instead of taking it in turns, and you’re out of breath as you dodge and spin, and try to manoeuvre away but fail every time. Someone is always at your heels.

You refuse to raise your sword against them.

You block with it when you can, and eventually find yourself being pushed down slowly, your small sword digging in to your hand as you use it to block Gladio’s broad sword. He just stares at you with dead eyes as he barely uses any force to push you down. You break away, pushing yourself back as fast as you can to miss being sliced, and you feel sweat trickle down your neck from the constant effort. You’re breath comes heavy and your body feels like lead as you watch warily.

Isn’t it over yet?

Your eyes scan over your friends, and land on Noct as he rushes forward too fast for you to block.

Too fast to dodge.

The air is stolen from your body and you’re sure the sword that’s gone through your stomach is the only thing keeping you upright. A strange sound passes your lips, you’re beyond screaming in pain at the burning hot feeling that sears your nerves. You can’t feel any of the exhaustion or other wounds, as your body only focuses on the sword that passes through you completely.

Your eyes connect with Noct’s and you realise you’re leaning on him, a handful of his shirt bunched up in your closed fist as you gasp at the pain.

You know exactly when he starts to come to.

You can see it in his eyes, the colour becoming more saturated and true: then he frowns and his eyes dart over your face, and you can practically hear him wonder why you’re looking at him like that. His eyes widen and his expression becomes pained, just like yours, as the sword in your stomach disappears with the sound of falling glass.

You fall to the ground, a hand folding over the wound in your stomach as you idly think there’s no point in trying to stop the bleeding when the sword went right through you. He sinks with you, and he barely eases you down as you’re sure he would fall down too if he could after seeing you skewered by his own blade, by his own hand.

The burning hot feeling passes, and you realise it’s shock as you scream at the new sensations in your body that are beyond description. There’s absolute panic coursing through your veins, and you know it’s too early for sunset but the world looks strangely dark.

“Ignis!” Noct shoults as he looks over your body as he lays you downand sees wounds from four different weapons across your body, “IGNIS!”

Gladio pulls Noct away, seeing the Prince become pale and useless as he realises what he’s done. What they’ve all done. Time can be spared for that later.

“What?” Ignis’ sharp and sudden exhale brings Gladio’s attention back to the situation as you lay between the two of them, wet with blood and paler by the second. 

“Ignis?”

He shakes his head as he pulls out an Elixir and presses it to your lips without hesitation. Prompto stands out of the way with Noct, barely breathing as he watches, and hisses in a breath when your wounds close. Through the slit in your top he can see a long line of scar tissue; a heated red that glistens with newness.

“______’s health hadn’t just been lowered, it had depleted almost completely…” you’re dazed and panting, and Ignis sweeps a hand across your forehead, moving the hair that’s plastered to your face with blood, sweat, and tears.

The sound of engines flaring above them causes them to look up, and they see Ardyn leaning against the side of the opening, just watching, before the door closes and the ship flies away.

You groan and stay laying down as you come back to your senses. Hissing in pain you crack your eyes open and feel the grainy texture lining your mouth that tells you you’ve had an elixir. 

Prompto moves to your head and balls up his shirt that he’s untied from his waist, before placing it under your head. “Are you ok?”

“Did you get that bullet out of my shoulder?”

Ignis shakes his head, “I’m afraid not, we needed to give you an Elixir, or…”

“Yeah, I know…” you hate saying it but you know it needs to be done sooner rather than later. “I can feel it rubbing against the bone.”

“Can it wait?” Gladio’s gruff voice sounds from your side and you’re not sure if he would rather get somewhere safe first or just not subject you to more pain yet.

Biting back a cry of pain you move your arm, the feeling of the foreign object grinding against bone makes you feel nauseous and light headed. 

Prompto huffs from your head with a tense laugh “That’s a no.”, you huff as he apologises ’______ I am so sorry,“

"You were out of it don’t worry, you didn’t do it really.”

“Are you ready ______?” You lift your head and see Ignis has a small knife in his hand, and you can see it’s cooling slowly from the quick burst of sterilising flame he conjured.

Glancing at Gladio you bite your lip in silent question, and he straddles your middle, holding your right arm down as Ignis moves and straddles the left, pinning it down. You gulp and try to control your breathing.

“Prompto, your belt please. ______ will need something to bite on.” His voice is grave and you don’t enjoy the mood, so when Prompto starts undoing his belt you snicker, “This is getting kinky.” And the three have varying degrees of nervous laughter and long-suffering shakes of the head. You wonder where Noct is, not seeing him through the three surrounding you, and you assume he’s keeping a lookout.

While, of course, blaming himself, you think. But you know you can set that right later.

Any humour you injected in to the situation disperse as Prompto kneels at your head and brings his belt to your mouth. You hesitate before opening your mouth, staring in to his worried blue eyes as the leather slips between your teeth and you bite down, the taste of it reminding you there’s a lingering taste of blood in your mouth. His soft hands gently hold your head, long fingers disturbing strands of hair as he holds firmly. His stomach turns at the sight of the puckered scar on your shoulder, and he remembers aiming for your head and pulling the trigger multiple times: The absense of emotion at the time chills him, and he wonders if it is an echo of a life he might of had as… something else entirely.

“Ready?” You nod and scrunch your eyes shut and Ignis spreads his hand across your shoulder. The knife pierces your flesh and you keen around the belt and squirm. “Hold them still, it’s quite deep.” Gladio shifts, his weight pinning you without difficulty. 

You writhe underneath him, unable to stop from moving as the blade digs deeper. A scream at the sensation of the knife scraping the bullet is lost between your throat and the belt clasped in your teeth. You’re not strong enough to dislodge him, and that weakness, your softness and gentleness, is something that creates a beautiful contrast against your perseverance and toughness. He can’t deny that you earn great respect from him, and as he recalls ramming you with his shield he grits his teeth, shaking his head to dislodge the memory and focus on the now.

When the knife twists only slightly you can’t help but push against the mud with your feet, kicking and arching through pain alone as you scream through your clenched teeth, breathing harsh.

“It’s gonna be ok, it’s nearly out, it’s nearly out.” Prompto soothes from above as your eyes widen at the sensation of the bullet being cut away from healed flesh that had adhered to it. He bites his lip and looks away, and you can only imagine the sight you make, flushed skin with wet eyes and a pained expression.

The pain becomes excruciating, and you’re sure you black out in the white hot pain, as when you come to, it’s to Gladio pressing a potion to your lips while Ignis staunches the bleeding.

While your wounds are healed, and twisted scar tissue appears at the site of the hole, you still feel the aches and phantom pains at the sites of the wounds. The pain of the sword through your stomach still fresh in your mind, you wince at the recollection and takes few deep breaths.

“Shake it off ______.” You mutter to yourself as you sit up with help from Prompto. You hand him his belt with a small thank you, and he gives you a moment of privacy as you tidy your face and torn clothes, fighting that empty feeling of pure exhaustion.

When you’re done you stick out your hand and wiggle your fingers, “little help?”, Ignis pulls you up and you lean against him closing your eyes, “’m so tired.”

There’s comfort for a moment, as he lets you lean against his solid form,supporting you with his hands resting on your shoulders, and he savours holding you because it means you’re ok. “Camp is a little way away… We’ll go by chocobo, you’ll have to share with someone, I don’t trust you to stay conscious and safe on your own.”

You nod and pull away, smiling gently “Thanks Ig, 'specially for- you know,” you rotate your shoulder and regret it as it’s still sore, “It can’t have been nice, but you pulled through it. So thank you.”

He shakes his head with a frown, memories of his blades flashing through the air as he sliced at you without restraint: It took a lot to take a blade to you once more, and cause you pain yet again. That you could read that showed your heart and kindness. “You’re unbelievable, do you know that?” He speaks lowly as the others start mounting their chocobo, “I don’t know about the others, but…. I clearly remember. I am so deeply sorry ______.”

“Don’t sweat it Ignis, I know it wasn’t you really.” You look towards Noctis who is quiet and sullen, with a frown on his face as he looks down at the reigns in his hands. “Do you think..?"Ignis follows your gaze and understands immediately when his eyes land on Noct. 

"Absolutely.” And you can hear the resignation in his voice, in his own mind he’s fighting the same battle that Noct has obviously lost.

“Let’s get back to camp then, get all of this behind us.” Noctis looks like a deer in headlights when you walk over to him and stop next to his chocobo, looking up at him with a hand out. “I’m riding with you.”

He hesitates, looking for a way out of this, but finding none he pulls you up behind him and you get comfortable with your arms around his waist. You’d rest your head against his back if you weren’t sure you’d fall asleep and out of the saddle.

Noct is tense under your hands, and you give him a few minutes to relax under your touch, except he doesn’t.

“I’m sorry you had to see that Noc-”

“Are you serious?” you hadn’t expected the anger in his voice, low enough that the others couldn’t hear from the back of their chocobos. “We do all of that to you, and you just shrug it off?”

“Do you…. Want me to be mad?” He scoffs and pushes the chocobo on, ignoring you. “Okay, so when I got turned in to a frog that was my bad. That time I was turned to stone for about half an hour, totally my fault. Oh and remember that time I ran away cause I thought you were all-”

“Enough.”

“No, no, I have another. What about that time I got poisoned and had to die to live. I dropped the ball there my ba-”

“I said enough.” The hiss is low but full of venom.

“Well if that was your fault then I guess the other times were mine right?”

“We hurt you, I remember pretty fucking clearly that that seemed to be the general goal for all four of us.” He turns his head and you can see the ferocious look on his face. “And I got you real good.”

“I’m fine now, just tired and scarred, but I hear chicks dig scars, so…” He doesn’t reply, his gaze forward on where he’s riding and you sigh, placing your forehead against his back, spreading your fingers over his abdomen as he tenses once more. “Please don’t do this Noct, It was horrible- for all of us. If you carry this with you, if you act weird towards me because of it… You’ll be hurting me much more.”

And you’re being honest. Through the terror of fighting against your friends you’d found yourself more than understanding of the helplessness of the situation for them: you’d suffered similar aftermaths yourself. Though, no, you couldn’t imagine the horror of slashing at someone you called a friend, and you were sad for them that that was a memory for each of them now. 

You couldn’t imagine how Noct felt right now. His expression when he came to would be seared in to your memory, but it was without a doubt a simpler and easier thing to remember than what Noct had to deal with.

“Just… Just talk to me, or don’t, but please don’t act like you’re to blame. I don’t blame you, I don’t want you to blame yourself,” You squeeze your arms around him and rest your cheek on his back, “I don’t want any of you to blame yourselves, and I AM sorry you had to go through that, to remember that.”

He sighs and his body relaxes, and you smile against his back as he breathes out an “I know,” and you can hear the 'but’ coming before he says, “but we nearly killed you.” He’s not wrong, he remembers the last minute dodge you’d managed to avoid Gladio’s broadsword, Ignis’ blade narrowly missing your throat, and Prompto’s gun tracking your movements and only barely missing through your sheer determination. He remembers your face when-

“I’m still here Noctis,” you say softly, a warm presence at his back. He places a hand over yours that sits on his stomach as they make it to camp.

You fall asleep with ease, a sleep that’s dreamless and deep enough that you don’t realise that when the others come to sleep they surround you. Prompto at your head, a hand resting at your neck, Gladio and Ignis at either side, Gladio with a hand on your hip, Ignis with one at your shoulder, each falling asleep touching you to reassure themselves that despite everything, you’re still here.

Noct gave up on sleep a while ago, and he’s sat up by your feet, his knees drawn up as he watches the rise and fall of your stomach as you sleep.

You’re still here, he reassures himself as his thoughts keep turning to the horror of seeing your pale bloodstained face looking disbelieving at him as he holds the blade that goes right through you.

You’re still here.


End file.
